#100happydays Day 88 The Need to Stretch

#100happydays   The Need to Stretch

I’m sitting on the floor stretching as I write this post. As runners, we have deal with the tight quads, caves and hamstrings.  Each step we take forces our quads, hamstrings, calves, hips and gluts to flex and extend over and over. All this repetitive motion can cause our muscles and tendons to tighten up becoming less flexible and more prone to injury.

Morning stretches after our run

Ideally we should do dynamic stretches before we run like leg swings and walking lunges and static stretches after we run like hamstring and hip flexor stretches, calf and quad stretches and full body stretches. Dynamic stretches help to loosen up and activate all your leg muscles and static stretches help to maintain flexibility and range of motion.

There are lots of excellent articles on the web about stretching. Runners World is one that comes to mind as a good resource. We recommend the book Stretching by Bob and Jean Anderson. (see image)

Stretching by Bob and Jean Anderson

I’d like to say we are diligent in our stretching, but we are not. Nagging injuries pop up every now and again to remind us of importance of stretching. As the saying goes “if you don’t have time to stretch, you don’t have time to run”.